2009—Private Equity’s Most Boring Year. Good Riddance!
In 2008, credit froze up but we still had lots of leftover boom-era fun to ogle at. The first half of the year saw plenty of MAC drama from mega-buyouts gone bad, and the second half, well you know what happened then. But in 2009 what did we get? Frozen credit, frozen deal-doing, frozen fundraising, a pile of never-ending pay-to-play crap, and an even bigger pile of hopeful, optimistic punditry. YAWN! So here’s hoping 2010 will be rife with heated M&A auctions, warmer fundraising markets, IPOs-a-blazing, the end of pay-to-play, and realistic punditry. Cheers! Capping off our year-end series, we asked PE pros for some reflections on 2009 and predictions for 2010. Here are some of their answers. For more year-end reflection, go here. To chime in, GPs can send responses here.
